Boeing 2707. The airplane that almost ate Seattle

1960-70-ies was a time that was characterized by the rapid development of supersonic aircraft. By the time has been successfully solved the main problems of controllability and stability of the aircraft, for their aerodynamic efficiency and safety during supersonic flight. This primarily concerned the development of military aviation, but around the same time began to appear numerous designs a supersonic passenger aircraft. Of these, only the soviet tu-144 (first flew on 31 december 1968) and the anglo-french concorde (first flight — 2 march 1969) is commercially available. The soviet supersonic passenger liner tu-144 was in operation only from 1975 to 1978, but the "Concord" much more fortunate, he was actively operated from 1976 to 2003, transported by air of millions of passengers.

At the same time a huge number of supersonic passenger aircraft and failed to withdraw from the stage of the project. It happened with the american boeing 2707, which was stopped at the stage of production of the two prototypes. Concorde and tu-144стоит be noted that the creation of supersonic aircraft was associated with well-defined difficulties. Flight at supersonic speeds, unlike flying at subsonic speeds takes place in a different aerodynamics, as upon reaching the aircraft the speed of sound, the aerodynamics of the flow changes qualitatively, for this reason it greatly increases aerodynamic drag, in addition to increasing the kinetic heating of the structure by the friction incident to high speed air flow.

As you move away from the aerodynamic focus that then leads to loss of controllability and stability of the aircraft. During flight at supersonic speed was evident and the phenomenon of "Wave resistance". This was linked to delays in the development of such aircraft. Achieving efficient flight at transonic or supersonic speeds cannot be achieved only by increasing the power of airplane engines.

From aircraft required new design solutions. As a consequence, has varied and appearance of aircraft, began to appear sharp corners, characterized by straight lines, in contrast to the "Smooth" forms, which were characterized by subsonic aircraft. Development of a supersonic passenger aircraft was conducted by the boeing company for several years. The work was carried out within the framework of the program to create a supersonic airliner (national supersonic transport).

This program was announced on 5 june 1963 us president John f. Kennedy. It was planned that the new liner will get cruising speed at 2. 7 mach (about 2900 km/h) with a flight range of up to 6740 km, the passenger capacity of the new liner had to be up to 277 people (was later increased to 300 people). September 1, 1966, the boeing company submitted to faa model 733-390 with a seating capacity of up to 300 people.

Boeing-2707-300вскоре the aircraft received a new designation, which was included in the history — boeing-2707-100. In the name of the cruise ship reflected its cruising speed of m=2,7. It was also emphasized a new stage in the development of passenger liners in comparison with the very popular boeing 707. The aircraft managed in the competition to circumvent the projects of lockheed and North american.

December 31, 1966, after almost 14 years in various research, design, and fierce competition, the boeing company and its boeing-2707-100 was selected by the U.S. Federal government for the construction of a prototype. Engines for passenger aircraft was produced by the company general electric. Passenger plane boeing 2707 was designed as a wide-body airliner.

A distinctive feature of the project, among others, was a variable wing geometry. Such a solution has never been applied in civil aircraft (however, in the course of work on supersonic passenger liner american engineers have refused such a wing). The original interior layout of the new liner, which was submitted by the boeing company for the competition was similar to subsonic "Narrowbody" planes with 3 seats in a row on either side of the only passage in the cabin. In this embodiment, the plane could transport across the ocean to Europe 277 passengers (30 flew in 1st class, the rest in tourist class).

However, quite quickly the plane's fuselage was extended by 30 cm to 5 meters. It is possible to move to a new layout of the seats — 2-3-2 scheme, which presupposes the presence of two passageways (forward fuselage), and then 3-3. In the first class seats were placed according to scheme 2-2. While in standard tourist class seat pitch was 86 cm in the first class — 101 see the total seating capacity of the aircraft was increased to 300 or 350 in a fully tourist.

For the entertainment of the passengers during the flight in the cabin was planned to install tvs. Design of passenger seats was developed by the specialists of the company boeing, they had to be comfortable, even for passengers over six feet tall. The first version of a supersonic airliner, dubbed the boeing 2707-100 had a front wing with a sweep of 30°, then it was reduced to 20°. After takeoff, the sweep was increased to 30°, and at transonic flight speeds up to 42°.

In this mode, the plane had to be as cost-efficient as the boeing 707. When flying at supersonic speeds the wings have leaned back already 72°, forming together with the tail of the liner very large bearing surface with a total area of about 9,000 square feet. The process of full displacement of the wings from the front to the rear position was performed for only one minute, reverse the movement occupied two minutes. Designers achieved a high degree of mechanization of the wing in combination with a small sweep on the landing flight modes successfully allowed the aircraft to operate from the same airfields that the popular boeing 707.

A reduction of required thrust of the engines can reduce the level of noise. By analogy with the british-french "Concord" the bow of the american liner had a variable geometry, it was necessary to pilots to improve visibility during landing of the aircraft. The bow of the supersonic airliner deviated down during takeoff and landing, and had two hinges. Its front part has always remained in a horizontal position, improving the operation of the weather radar.

An intermediate position of the bow of the liner was installed when flying at subsonic speed. If the lower point of the fuselage of a passenger plane with raised fore part was located at a height of 2. 67 meters, when it lowered the height fell to 1. 22 meters. In addition to the "International" version, american designers considered the option of creating an "Internal" supersonic passenger aircraft. By reducing the amount of fuel its take-off weight was planned to be reduced to 260 tons.

Thanks to this plane can be set nonafterburning engines and to reduce excess pressure from a sonic boom. The aircraft for domestic airline was going to build after full debugging of the international version of the liner. In late 1967, boeing introduced in the design of its future aircraft, a number of changes, so a model of the boeing 2707-200. Because the change of geometry of the wing is not fully compensated for the focus shift of the lift force during the flight, performed at supersonic speed, the aircraft was additionally installed fixed canards (pgo) with control surfaces located on the trailing edge. The aircraft was lengthened by 3. 6 meters, which allows you to put in 15 additional passenger seats. However, all these solutions have increased the weight of the aircraft structure, and also resistance that led to the growth of the required reserve fuel.

For some compensation of growth of the mass of the ship was simplified design of the bow deflected part of the fuselage, it was decided to make odnostoronnee with sliding flap (decision similar to the European "Concorde"). This was followed by laboratory testing of some components and assemblies of the liner, for example, the compounds of the moving parts of the wing center section, but in 1968, the company has completely abandoned the original idea of a variable sweep wing, crossing to the passenger liner of the classical scheme with a triangular wing. The final version of the supersonic airliner was designated the boeing-2707-300. In an effort to reduce the rapidly increasing take-off weight of the aircraft, in october 1968, the engineers at boeing finally abandoned wing with variable geometry. The final version of the plane was distinguished by the presence of a delta wing with variable sweep on the leading edge.

Thus the horizontal tail supersonic airliner has been reduced and shifted back, canards disappeared. The engines were moved under the wing of the aircraft. The fuselage remained almost unchanged, only the rejected part of the bow has become easier for the single section. In addition to the engineers about the transition to a classical fixed wing passenger airliner was shortened to 273 in tourism (first class cabin).

Along with the increased fuel capacity that was supposed to give an increase in flight range of 300 miles. The fate of the project in the mid-1960s, years power aviation giant boeing was pretty heavily loaded with development of the world's largest passenger plane boeing-747. The program of creation of the supersonic passenger liner was faced with a large number of difficulties, not only of a technical nature. Obvious a backlog of americans from other states that have created their own supersonic passenger aircraft the soviet tu-144 and the joint anglo-french "Concord" — deprived american program for establishing political priorities.

A curious coincidence: exactly 10 years after the first flight of the "Pestera", literally to the day, March 20, 1942, on the opposite side of the Pacific ocean for the first time rose into the air another advanced fighter, the Japanese Mitsubishi J2M interceptor "Raiden" ("Thunder").